Americans for Financial Reform is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(4) nonprofit coalition working to lay the foundation for a strong, stable, and ethical financial system.
Cryptocurrency

Statement: Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress statement on House passage of legislative giveaways to the crypto industry that enrich Trump and his cronies

Today’s House crypto votes are an ill omen for small investors and the financial system. The die is now cast: the crypto industry’s profligate political spending is very close to securing a light-touch regulatory framework for these volatile assets and predatory platforms that will mainstream crypto’s endemic scandals, instability, exploitation, and illicit financial dealings right into the fabric of the financial system.

Blog: Wall Street Wants Your Retirement Savings

People rely on their retirement savings to provide economic security later in life, but Wall Street private equity firms have launched a dangerous scheme to fleece savers who have amassed a $12.4 trillion pot of money via their 401(k) retirement accounts.

News Release: Private Equity Taking Over Key Parts of Home Care System

The private equity industry has tapped into the multibillion dollar home and community based services (HCBS) sector, and has already made millions by implementing its routine playbook of extracting valuable company resources from providers of these crucial services while making life harder for care workers, clients, and communities most in need, according to a new report released by Americans For Financial Reform Education Fund. 

Statement for the Record: Cheering the 15-Year Track Record of Dodd-Frank Act

AFR submitted a statement for the record for the House hearing on the 15-year record of the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed to reduce the likelihood and severity of future financial crises and to protect people from financial predation and it has made a difference. Congress and financial regulators should be building on the pieces it put in place, not rolling them back.

Blog: Enabling the Crypto Billionaires

The crypto barbarians are at the gates. According to congressional Republicans, this week is “crypto week.” That’s code for their shameless plan to pass legislation expanding the wealth of 25 crypto billionaires while putting the rest of us — and the financial system — in harms way.

Less than two weeks after the Republicans passed a giant tax break for the super rich (paid for with savage cuts to Medicaid, nutrition programs, and more), they are teeing up two pieces of crypto legislation that will reward Big Tech and the crypto broligarchs but pose serious financial risks to small crypto investors, financial stability, and everybody else.

In the News: Hardly Workin’ (The American Prospect)

“Every legal loophole that the previous administration tried to close is now open again,” [Christine Chen Zinner, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform] told the Prospect. “With no meaningful oversight and accountability, there is no safety in the financial marketplace. People are on their own now.”